Swami Vivekananda – Impact

In the last two centuries, no other individual has captured the hearts of the youth of Bharat, the way Swami Vivekananda did. He blew energy into the Hindu race which was indulging in self-loathe. He exhorted people of Bharat with his words ” “This is the ancient land, where wisdom made its home before it went into any other country… Here is the same India whose soil has been trodden by the feet of the greatest sages that ever lived… Look back, therefore, as far as you can, drink deep of the eternal fountains that are behind, and after that look forward, march forward, and make India brighter, greater, much higher, than she ever was.”

The youth of Bharat must put their entire energy for these two years to learn and educate themselves regarding our Vedic roots and heritage. These are years of preparation during which all of us need to spread out wide to spread the message of Swami Vivekananda – The message of Shakti, Seva and Samskar.

“My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions. I have formulated the idea and have given my life to it. If I do not achieve success, some better one will come after me to work it out, and I shall be content to struggle.”CW : VOL 5 : Interview : the missionary work of the first hindu sannyasin to the west and his plan of regeneration of India : p. 223

Where are the men? That is the question. Young men, my hope in you. Will you respond to the call of your nation? Each one of you has a glorious future if you dare believe me. Have a tremendous faith in yourselves. Ay, we will then go to every country under the sun, and our ideas will before long be a component of the many forces that are working to make up every nation in the world. We much enter into the life of every race in India and abroad; shall have to work to bring this about. Now for that I want young men. “It is that young, the strong, and healthy, of sharp intellect that will reach the Lord”, say the Vedas.CW : VOL 3 : Lectures from Colombo to almora: The future of India p: 303 – 304.

The 150th Jayanti is a great occasion to remind ourselves of his thoughts and vision for Bharat and dedicate ourselves to the cause of dedicating ourselves to the glory of our motherland and Dharma. An article giving various programs that are being held in the year is at the link below

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6 thoughts on “Swami Vivekananda – Impact”

Ayush’s lecture on the occasion at Social Cause was slick and brilliant. Slick because it did not overstretch a point or get dragged into controversial areas. Brilliant because it was comprehensive. I would like to be informed of any of his future lectures or writings.

His thoughts and ideas are like the Sun. The earth catches less than a millionth portion of the light radiated by the Sun, yet that is enough for the sustenance and flourishing of all life on earth. Similarly, anyone amongst us who can understand his ideas – even a millionth part – and carry them out in his/her life, will become an extra-ordinary individual, themselves becoming an inspiration to others.

Take for example Nikolas Tesla, the famous inventor of AC electric motor and dynamo, amongst many other things. Swami Vivekananda met him in America, and at some point, explained to him the importance of Brahmacharya, or sexual continence/chastity/celibacy. The Swami had the power of remembering whatever he’d once heard or read. He could get the contents of entire books (like the volumes of the Encyclopedia Brittannica) in a few hours, almost by flipping the pages! He attributed this power to his observance of Brahmacharya, unbroken, over many years. Tesla was impressed by what he saw, and never married. In Tesla’s life, one comes across similar anecdotes of books being memorized “at a glance”, pages of calculations, “never written, only kept in his head” etc. It would hardly be surprising if this ability were due to his observance of continence, being inspired by the Swami.

Great person indeed. If all youth understand him and take sustenance from the traditions of India and the wisdom of India, while learning from western systems wherever needed, indeed it would be wonderful.

Unfortunately, in India one finds often two extreme kinds of viewpoints:

That the western traditions are superior – the western languages, their literature, their movies are superior.

Or

The Indian traditions are the best and the west is just a shithole full of permissiveness, drugs, racism and alcohol.

The reality is somewhere in between. We need to inculcate in our youth the ability to think on their own, not borrow their brains and leave the thinking to some organisations – whether these organisations are ‘pseudo-Hindu’ or ‘militant muslim’ or ‘christian one-god’ or ‘maoist’ or ‘socialist fanatic’.

In fact I believe the above mentioned 5 types of organisations are the greatest danger to India.

How Shall We Recover our Lost Intellectual Freedom

Sri Aurobindo says " How shall we recover our lost intellectual freedom? By reversing, for the time being, the process by which we lost it, by liberating our minds in all subjects from the thralldom to authority. The Anglicized ask us to abandon authority, revolt against superstition to have free minds. What they mean is that we should renounce authority of the Vedas for Max Muller, the Monism of Sankara for the Monism of Haeckel, the dogmatisms of Pandits for the dogmatisms of European thinkers, scientists and scholars. Let us break our chains in order to be free, in the name of truth, not in the name of Europe.

Our first necessity, if India is to survive and do her appointed work in the world, is that the youth of India should learn to think, - to think on all subjects, to think independently, fruitfully, going to the heart of things, not stopped by their surface, free of prejudgments, shearing sophism and prejudice asunder as with a sharp sword, smiting down obscurantism of all kinds as with the mace of Bhima…”.